The women's institution also holds awareness campaign on subject, hands over signatures to police, will give copies to PMO
Students collect signatures at a mall
Against the backdrop of the Hyderabad gangrape and murder, a college here held a signature and awareness campaign on rape, and demanded stricter laws for the crime.
Around 3,000 students of the St Mira College for girls took up the initiative in which they have demanded, "Stricter laws against rapists, quicker justice for victims, more fast track courts, a strong system that delivers punishment for rapists, a more sensitised police force, greater accountability of the people we vote to power, and a clear message by the government that we will have a zero tolerance policy towards rape."
ADVERTISEMENT
The campaign began on December 10 and students have collected over 35,000 signatures from people at hospitals, in slum areas, academic institutions etc.
'Safer India for women'
Speaking to mid-day, principal of the college G H Gidwani said, "The purpose is to ask for a safer India for women. We have become sensitive to protect the cow but is it not time we think of the safety of our daughters, sisters and wives? We go on strike to demand better wages. How about raising our voice against the atrocities on women? We would like to take this further by inviting signatures online and hope other institutions take it up as well, to make it a movement as powerful as the Quit India Movement."
She added, "We have collected 35,170 signatures and handed them over to Pune city police. We will also give copies to the Prime Minister's Office." They intend to continue to collect more signatures.
High-time for women's safety
Pooja Singh, a student of the college said, "We are very proud of the fact that as a women's college, we took the initiative of the signature campaign to have stricter laws against rape. We went to other colleges to collect signatures and found that students there were more than willing to sign. Even peons, everyone felt it was high-time we demanded accountability from our government on issues related to the safety of women."
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
